CHANGWON — Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongsang Province have begun a mega-regional employment partnership that breaks down administrative boundaries to train talent together. The three regions held a launch ceremony for the Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam Mega-Region Talent, Settlement and Future Linkage Project on the 8th at BEXCO Exhibition Center 2 in Busan. Selected under a Ministry of Employment and Labor competitive program, the project centers on consolidating talent training and employment services that each region had run separately until last year into a single mega-regional framework.
About 150 people attended the ceremony, including South Gyeongsang Province Governor Park Wan-su, Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo, Ulsan Mayor Kim Sang-wook and Vice Labor Minister Kwon Chang-jun. Participants shared the project's vision and staged a joint resolution performance.
The project runs from this year through 2029. This year's budget is 12.5 billion won, comprising 10 billion won from the central government and 2.5 billion won from local governments. It consists of three projects — Talent Linkage, Settlement Linkage and Future Linkage — and seven sub-programs.
Talent Linkage supports the flow of young talent from the greater Seoul area into local companies and helps young residents build assets. Settlement Linkage aims to create a single living and labor zone by supporting commuting between the three regions and providing mega-regional employment services. Future Linkage trains talent needed for the artificial intelligence transition and supports joint research, production, supply chain and market development cooperation among companies.
The 2026 Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam Mega-Region Linkage Job Fair was held at the same venue that day. It was the first event to apply Settlement Linkage's mega-regional employment services on a large scale. About 70 large, mid-sized and small companies from industries common to the three regions — including shipbuilding, automobiles and machinery parts — took part, holding recruitment consultations and interviews. Gyeongnam-based companies including Hanwha Ocean Engineering and Kolon Spaceworks also set up booths. The fair featured company recruitment booths, a large-company promotion hall, a mega-regional employment services hall, a special headhunting hall, an employment support hall and a settlement support hall.
The 2026 Marine and Fisheries Job Fair, hosted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, was also held at Exhibition Center 2 that day. Across the two fairs, about 170 companies from the region's core manufacturing industries and the marine and fisheries sector met job seekers in one space.
"The key to revitalizing a region is talent and companies, and among those, what matters more is cultivating talent," Governor Park said. "Companies in the greater Seoul area say that even when they want to relocate to the regions, the people they need are not there. So training excellent talent that local industries need is the shortest path to regional revitalization."
"Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongnam differ only in administrative boundaries and have long been a single living and economic zone," he said. "Rather than training and sourcing talent separately, we should cultivate and supply it together on a mega-regional basis so that the talent the region needs can circulate."
He added, "If the core industries of Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongnam cooperate organically, they can have industrial competitiveness as strong as that of the greater Seoul area."
